Antonio Moreno – photos and quotes

“And of Madrid, I don’t remember very much, because we went to live near Gibraltar. The English soldiers were there, and although I was only a little boy, I became intensely interested in the English language, and tried to learn it, although I didn’t make very much progress. But there I began to love the sea. We had very little rain, and all day the sun shone down dazzlingly on the blue water of the Mediterranean, while beyond the straits lay a mysterious yellow continent: Africa. My principle interest in coming to America was a study of the English language. I landed in New York in the latter part of 1902. First I attended a school conducted by Catholic Sisters, and then I spent a year in the New York public schools.” — Antonio Moreno

Source: Julian Johnson (1917)

“I intend to stay in Moving Pictures as long as the Vitagraph Company intend to keep me, and I hope to make myself so valuable that the Vitagraph will not care to let me go.” — Antonio Moreno

Source: Violet Virginia (1914)

“I tried to fill out some naturalization papers, but I had trouble in finding out the name of the steamer that I sailed on, and met with so many other difficulties that I gave up the idea of becoming a citizen of the United States, although I suppose I should be a citizen, and I would certainly be proud to be one.” — Antonio Moreno

Source: Violet Virginia (1914)

Photo: 1914

“I think I ought to marry. I think anyone ought to marry, eventually. To me there is only one thing more wretched than an old maid: an old man who has done nothing for the world’s future and nothing for its present, except to pamper himself and look after his own comfort. An old person who has lived always for himself or herself must have a lot of very cold memories, seems to me. I haven’t married, because I want to bring a wife into an established career. I think a wife should be the crown of a career, and not put precariously on a career’s beginning. I know many a man says he ‘owes all his success to his wife,’ and that’s all. But not me. I’m going to make my place, and then – well, I haven’t picked her out yet, so if you’ve any candidates….!” — Antonio Moreno

“By jingo, I think I would have married her if we had stayed together any longer! Everybody dinned this thing into our ears, week in and week out, after hours and in hours. We got hypnotized by it. It had no foundation other than we were a pair of real pals, and that she was the best fellow to work with I ever saw among women. God, how I liked that girl! And she liked me, I think! At least I hoped she did. You know the rarest thing in the world is a real friendship between a man and a woman, and that was the situation of Edith Storey and me. You couldn’t call it love at any stage. She was my pal – and at that. I think the association would have made us man and wife! Now, she’s going her way, and I’m going mine…no.” — Antonio Moreno 

Photo: Edith Storey sits behind the wheel of Antonio Moreno‘s 1917 Humpmobile roadster.

The Veiled Mystery (1920). With Pauline Curley.

“I like Mr. Smith of Vitagraph. My affection for those people was very much, see. Now my affection for Mr. Lasky and the Paramount people is growing very much. I think I’ll like them even more some day than I did the Vitagraph people. One time I was offered $1000 a week, much more than I was getting, but it was a new company and I was afraid to change, see. One time I came to New York to talk to Mr. Lasky about changing, but he didn’t understand me or I didn’t understand him, so I went back to the old job, see. Maybe if I had made a change sooner I’d be a big star. Now they tell me I must start all over and maybe some day I’ll have a big place. But I’m not fixed so bad, see. I want to keep working and doing my best, but I didn’t know when to make a change, see.” — Antonio Moreno

Source: James W. Dean (1923)

“This was a very good contract. But of course in leaving serials I left stardom temporarily. You know I was only third in the feature billing of ‘Lost and Found,’ that picture I made for Goldwyn. That was hard – to come down from star billing.” — Antonio Moreno

Pauline Starke and Antonio Moreno in a scene from the silent film LOST AND FOUND ON A SOUTH SEA ISLAND (1923).

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“In my last pictures I’ve supported Gloria and Mary Minter. Now I’m cofeatured with Bebe, and soon I hope I’ll be back where I was.” — Antonio Moreno in 1923.

“Once I played in ‘The Tarantula.’ That was Spanish and lots of letters I got, so I asked to play more Spanish parts, see. They’d listen to me and tell me they appreciated what I say, see, but they know their business best. So I play Irishmens, Germans, Scotchmens, Englishmens – everything I play but what I like.” — Antonio Moreno

Source: James W. Dean (1923)

The Flaming Forrest (1926). With Renée Adorée. Directed by Reginald Barker.

“This business of acting for talking pictures is hard work. It’s not the same fun we used to have in the old days. Today you have to think too much and too fast. There’s too much homework.” — Antonio Moreno

Source: 1938

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